Army National Guard

The state of Mississippi will close four Army National Guard readiness centers in response to force structure reductions and budget cuts, officials said Wednesday. The initiative, which will save the Mississippi National Guard $130,000 in annual maintenance and utility costs, will reduce the number of readiness centers across the state to 79. The armories will be returned to each of the four municipalities by Oct. 23, reported the Clarion-Ledger. Full-time workers at armories will be reassigned to nearby facilities. Additional readiness centers also are being considered for return to their communities …

The Vermont Public Service Board last month approved the construction of a 1.8-megawatt solar array to power the Vermont Army National Guard facility in Westminster. The photovoltaic array would be built on a reclaimed gravel pit covering 17 acres that is part of an industrial park in the town. The developer, Spencer-TGC, plans to purchase the land and lease it back to the Army for $1 a year for 20 years. To meet state requirements for net metering, a project needs to be located on the property of the user, reported VT Digger. The array will supply about 71 percent of the National Guard facility’s electricity. The project was supported by Westminster’s town manager, but the Westminster Select Board expressed concern that it would inhibit the town’s economic growth. The project would occupy the town’s last parcel of undeveloped land designated for industrial or commercial use.

The Army this summer will launch a pilot initiative formally linking active-duty units with those in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard that allows them to train together before deployment. “Much of America’s Army capacity is resident in the reserve components and we must rely more heavily on them to meet the demands of a complex global environment,” Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said in a news release. “The associated units pilot allows us to leverage the capabilities and capacities of the active component, Army Reserve and the Army National Guard as one Army …

The Army needs to improve its efforts to ensure soldiers in the National Guard and Reserve have access to quality-of-life services, particularly mental health care, Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey told lawmakers last week. The Army has expanded the availability of behavioral health teams to unprecedented levels, he said, and now there are 58 such teams embedded down to the unit level. But for reserve personnel, that’s not enough, Daily said during a hearing of the House Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee. “We can do more,” Daily said, reported the Army News Service. “And where you can help us is getting that help out to the National Guard and Reserves. They are dispersed throughout the U.S. …

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley wants to increase the service’s reliance on its reserve elements as a way of compensating for its declining active-duty end strength. Milley’s embrace of the National Guard and Army Reserve would echo many of the recommendations in the recent report issued by the National Commission on the Future of the Army, while marking a turn from his predecessor, reported the Colorado Springs Gazette. “The Army is a million-plus, it’s not 450,000 …

The Army needs to overcome the host of factors that have hindered progress integrating its active and reserve components as a single force, the National Commission on the Future of the Army recommended in its final report Thursday. “The commission believes the Army must fully implement the Total Force policy. It must capitalize on the reserve components to provide not only needed operational capabilities, but also the strategic depth required for future campaigns,” the report states. The commission issued a number of proposals to strengthen the total force, starting with the expansion of multicomponent units that combine members of active and reserve forces …